title: [Environmental surveillance of a sample of indoor swimming pools from Emilia Romagna region: microclimate characteristics and chemical parameters, particularly disinfection by products, in pool waters].
abstract: The aim of the present study was to investigate the environmental and healthy aspects from a representative sample of indoor swimming pools located in the Emilia Romagna region. During the sampling sessions, the occupational environment was evaluated in terms of microclimate parameters and thermal comfort/discomfort conditions. Moreover the chemical risk was assessed by analyzing from the pool water the presence of disinfection by-products (DBPs), such as: trihalomethanes (THMs), haloacetic acids (HAAs), chlorite, chlorate and bromate. The analytical results are in agreement with the Italian legislation (Accordo Stato-Regioni; 2003) even if in some of the sampled indoor swimming pools, the dosed combined chlorine levels, were greater than the Italian limit. With the regard to the microclimate conditions evaluation, the considered thermal indices, Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD%), described a satisfactory occupational environment. Among DBPs, the THMs mean levels (41.4 +/- 30.0 microg/l) resulted close to the values of the current Italian drinking water legislation, and seem to not represent an health issue. The pool waters chlorate levels (range: 5 - 19537 microg/l) need further investigations as recent epidemiological studies on drinking water hypothesized a potential genotoxicity effect of these compounds which are involved in cellular oxidative processes.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze di Sanità Pubblica, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia. guglielmina.fantuzzi@unimore.it
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fantuzzi
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Righi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Predieri
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Giacobazzi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mastroianni
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Aggazzotti
mesh_terms: D004202:Disinfectants / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D007558:Italy; D008834:Microclimate; D013551:Swimming Pools / Q000592:standards*; D014867:Water / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D004202:Disinfectants; D014867:Water